By Men in Black 3 has been facing problems for a while now. Maybe it’s just me, but starting production without a finished script that meets Will Smith’s approval doesn’t seem like the best thing for a movie’s quality. The screenplay was originally written by Etan Cohen, with further work done on it by Jeff Nathanson, David Koepp, and now Cohen again. But there’s another player on the field who the other writers aren’t even aware of.
It seems that Will Smith or someone close to him has brought on Mike Soccio for “minor on-set punch-up work.” Soccio has no significant movie credits, but has supposedly worked uncredited on many Smith films. The writer has worked with Smith back to his days on The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air, writing several episodes.
Still, it’s odd that none of the other writers seemed aware of his inclusion on the project. At best, Cohen’s spokesman said that “Etan is aware that Will Smith works with Mike Soccio,” which seems to dodge the fact that he didn’t know he was working on MIB3. And all this quiet, hush-hush discussion over writers seems like it might step on a few WGA rules, such as notifying writers of other writers.
Sony claim that all the writers knew that Soccio was a long-time collaborator with Smith and regretted if any of them were unaware of his involvement. It seems like too many cooks in the kitchen from where I’m standing, but if it helps them get a working script, it may be for the best.
[via THR]